© 2024 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY
WECS · WEDW-FM · WNPR · WPKT · WRLI-FM · WVOF
Public Files Contact · ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Boston-Area Residents Told To Shelter In Place

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. And we have special coverage right now of the unfolding events in Boston following the Boston Marathon bombing. I'm David Greene.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. Our counterterrorism correspondent Dina Temple-Raston has been keeping us up to date on this fast-moving story. Twenty-four hours ago, we had almost no information in public about the Boston Marathon bombers and in the last 24 hours, we have had photos revealed, there's been a chase of two men across the landscape of metropolitan Boston and the bombers have been identified. Dina, let's start with that identification. Just for people waking up here, who are these two men - or I should say who were these two men, because one has been killed, one is still at-large.

DINA TEMPLE-RASTON, BYLINE: That's right. The one at-large is 19-year-old young Chechnyan named Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and they are looking for him now. He is known - for anyone who has seen the photographs - there's a black baseball-capped man and there is a white baseball-capped man. This is the white baseball-capped man. His brother, his older brother, who's 20 - and we don't have his name yet - was killed in a shootout with police this morning. And I think this is what helped the police with their identification. Once they had his last name, they ran it through a database and they found Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Massachusetts driver's license.

INSKEEP: And it was a little surprising that the photos came out yesterday that we didn't immediately hear from tons of people saying, oh yeah, that's my brother, that's my neighbor, that's my cousin, something like that, and maybe now we understand why, because these young men were relatively recent arrivals to the United States.

TEMPLE-RASTON: They've been here apparently about a year. We also know this morning that there is a third man that law enforcement officials are interested in. I don't know that they arrested him but they certainly took him into custody this morning, they stripped him naked. They were concerned that he might be wearing some sort of explosive device and they put him into a squad car handcuffed.

GREENE: And, Dina, again, for people just waking up, this comes after an extraordinary eight or nine hours in Boston beginning late last night. Remind us how all this transpired as they've been chasing after these two men - one now dead, one still at large.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, the photographs came out early evening yesterday. And within about six hours, there were at least one hit on this, which was the young man with the white hat tried to rob a 7-11. And the video from that matched so closely the picture that the police were contacted. They started looking for them a short time later. They apparently carjacked a Mercedes SUV. There was a car chase that took them from Cambridge into Watertown then there was a firefight. There were explosives that were thrown. And then we actually saw and we heard that the police had actually killed the one brother, the older brother, and he had an explosive strapped to his chest. I don't want to say it was a suicide vest but he had some sort of explosive...

INSKEEP: He had something there. We don't know precisely whether it was a suicide vest or whether it was just more explosives he might have been ready to use or deploy or...

TEMPLE-RASTON: Or carry, or carry.

INSKEEP: ...yeah, the deployed explosives earlier in the evening, earlier in this sequence of events.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Apparently, he had burns on his chest.

INSKEEP: And let me just mention before we go on, we are waiting on a news conference by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. We intend to bring you that live. Before we proceed, though, David Greene, I want to ask you because you have spent time as NPR's correspondent in Russia. These two young men are identified as being from Chechnya. We do not know their motives. One man is dead. The other is still at-large. We do not know their motives - let's emphasize that. But let's understand the historical background because some people will be waking up and asking, Chechnya? What's that about?

GREENE: Yeah, of course. I mean, this is a region of Russia, Steve - these are republics of Russia, we should make that clear, this is Russian soil. And Chechnya had a separatist movement. It caused two very violent wars that a lot of people and observers remember. Now, the Russian government seems to have control of Chechnya itself but they are very concerned about Islamist extremist movements in the nearby republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia. The Russian government has had a very aggressive policy going after groups they say are Islamist extremists. And there are a lot of extremists in these republics that have wanted to set up a caliphate, I mean, to really just set up their own region. So, it's very violent and very unstable.

INSKEEP: And with that background, let's bring in another voice into our conversation. Roger Cressey is a former member of the U.S. National Security Council staff. He was director of transnational threats, so the perfect man to talk to right now. Mr. Cressey, welcome to the program.

ROGER CRESSEY: Good morning to you.

INSKEEP: How does this story change now that we have these young men identified from Chechnya? What to do now?

CRESSEY: Well, it's a remarkable and it's a stunning turn of events in such a short period of time since the FBI news conference. And we've always been in the business in - first reports are often wrong, so we do need to be careful. And, of course, everyone is. But this is something new. This is a phenomenon we have still have not experienced in the United States. And whatever you do in a counterterrorism investigation, three questions are who, why and how. We've known the how. We now know the who. And the why is usually the biggest question. And that's what we'll spend a lot of time on in the days and weeks and the months going forward. Were these individuals part of a broader conspiracy? Was there anybody else inside the United States that they've been working with? Did they come over here with the intent to do an event like this? They're legal residents, so clearly when they went through background checks there was no reason to be concerned about them. Or were they here, something happened, they radicalized and then they undertook the events on Monday? We simply don't know yet. But we have not had a lot of terrorist events originating from Chechnya that have directly impacted the United States.

TEMPLE-RASTON: So, this is a question...

INSKEEP: ...Dina Temple-Raston is here.

TEMPLE-RASTON: ...this is a question I have for you, Roger. And that is, can you talk a little bit about the intersection of al-Qaida and Chechnyans? There is a little bit of bleedover - not a great deal. Can you talk about whether or not there might - I know you don't know in this case - but can you talk a little bit about the Chechnyan role with al-Qaida?

CRESSEY: Right. So, if we step back from this particular investigation right now, there has been plenty of overlap between Chechen Islamists and al-Qaida and the broader al-Qaida network. What you have seen over the - I mean, this - well over a decade-plus - is you've seen individuals interact. I mean, in the, in camps in Afghanistan and elsewhere, you've seen Chechen separatists who have gone there, who have allied themselves on a one-off basis. There has been some conversations of formal alliances here or there. But when I was in government, there was no strength or reason to believe that it had gotten to that point. The one group in that region that had a formal alliance with al-Qaida central was in Uzbekistan. It was the Islamist movement of Uzbekistan. And you had strong Uzbek presence in the al-Qaida for a long time.

INSKEEP: This is a former Soviet republic. OK. Go ahead.

CRESSEY: Exactly. Because Chechnya has...it was a localized event, separatist movement trying to break away from Russia. It was different from what was the ideology driving al-Qaida in many of its affiliates.

TEMPLE-RASTON: But many of the top al-Qaida members, didn't they fight in Chechnya?

CRESSEY: We've had a lot of people affiliated with the al-Qaida movement who've had experiences in Chechnya, just as you've seen some of that experience fighting in the first Afghan war and also in the Balkans in the 1990s. So, without a doubt, the battlefields that's borne out many jihadis, Chechnya was certainly one of them.

INSKEEP: Two things - I want to remind people that we are waiting on a news conference by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and we will bring that to you live when we have it. But in the meantime, there is plenty to discuss. And, Roger Cressey, I want to ask you this as a former member of the National Security Council staff, can you describe the U.S. relationship with Russia? It's problematic on the surface, but what about intelligence agencies, law enforcement authorities? Can the United States get reliable information out of the Russians in a case like this?

CRESSEY: So, for many years, the Russians, particularly since 9-11, has tried to align their government actions in Chechnya with our fight against al-Qaida, saying we're all part of a broader effort to deal with international terrorism, jihadi terrorism. And as you know, the U.S. government has been very careful not to do or say anything that would somehow be perceived as justifying Russian action inside Chechnya. We do have uneven cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence in that character. What you see in the counterterrorism role is typical of what the broader U.S.-Russian relationship is. Whether it's specific areas where cooperation is warranted, it happens. But the type of free flow of information back and forth that you see between us and our primary allies, the Brits, the Australians, the Canadians and others, that doesn't happen.

INSKEEP: And there may be a little bit of suspicion as well, it sounds like. If the United States got information from Russia, they might ask, are we being played here?

CRESSEY: Well, there's always suspicion, right? As President Reagan famously said, you trust but you verify. And in the case of counterterrorism cooperation with Russia, if it's law enforcement to law enforcement, usually there is less political issue there. It's professionals trying to work together. But we have not had as many cases with Russia to do so over the past decade, since 9-11, as we have had with other governments, governments that traditionally may not have been allies with the United States.

GREENE: And, Mr. Pressley, take us inside the NSC and the White House as best you can. What happens next? I mean, now that we have identified these two suspects as being foreigners from a Russian republic, I mean, are people in the White House, State Department, elsewhere just on the phones with everyone they know right now in Moscow? What's going on?

CRESSEY: Well, this is principally law enforcement intelligence work right now. Because the three questions to why, no one knows the why right now. And everything that is being done is to answer that question. Any type of sources of information through diplomatic channels, but principally law enforcement intelligence is what's going to be pursued right now. It's (unintelligible) to read the picture and develop and understand why they did this but whether or not they're part of a broader conspiracy. If it's two individuals, that's one thing. If this is part of a broader conspiracy or if there were plans and directive from overseas or these individuals, they're all on their own, very, very important questions that will lead the U.S. government in a specific direction when they're answered.

GREENE: Among the many questions remaining. Mr. Pressley, thank you so much. Please stay on the line with us if you can. Of course, we are waiting a press conference from the governor of Massachusetts. The Boston area just woke up to stunning news this morning. A manhunt, one police officer killed on the campus of MIT. We have these two suspects now identified as brothers from the Russian republic of Chechnya. One is dead. One remains at large.

We have NPR's Tovia Smith on the line from Boston. And, Tovia, can you update us now on what's going on in the city? I mean, is anyone even thinking about going to work or is everyone indoors? What's happening there?

TOVIA SMITH, BYLINE: It is shut down like you can imagine the worst winter storm and more so. There is no one out there. Every school, college, university, businesses have been ordered closed. People have been ordered not to leave their house, literally. And this is not just in that area of Watertown anymore. This is in six communities. I have fallen inside the zone. You can't go outside. And they're begging people, imploring people, to take this seriously. As the police commissioner put it, we believe this to be a terrorist, a man who has come here to kill people. And we need to get them in custody.

INSKEEP: Nobody's taken the subway to work this morning.

SMITH: I think it's meant...the subway is completely shut down. I think the point is it is meant to be frightening. It is meant to be, you know, whatever they can do to make people take this seriously. Governor Patrick is going to speak in a moment, as you mentioned. You know, he has this job during snowstorms to tell people to stay off the roads. It's dangerous. This is a whole...

GREENE: A different kind of danger.

SMITH: ...different story.

GREENE: Very different kind of danger. No small thing. This is a major metropolitan area in the United States that sounds like it's on complete lockdown and deserted. I mean, this is surreal, it must feel like.

SMITH: You can't imagine. I mean, from the limited amount I can see, there is nothing to be seen and no snow. And I'm sure that besides urging people to stay inside, the governor will also talk about...when we last heard from him was yesterday at the healing service, and he talked about the shock and confusion that everybody felt on Monday, which is a pretty good description of what everybody is feeling right now. But we can expect them to try and calm people but really make people understand that this is serious.

INSKEEP: Tovia, many people are waking up to our voices here, and so much has happened that it's valuable even for those who've been awake all night to review what has happened in the order that it happened. We can recall that yesterday afternoon, in the afternoon, the authorities released a couple of photographs of suspects of the Boston Marathon bombing - one of them in a black cap, one of them in a white cap. And then a chase began across Boston. Would you help us review these details, and Dina Temple-Raston is here to help as needed. What happened last night?

SMITH: Well, it has been a long and frantic and violent night. We're going on nine hours or so and it is far from over. But how it started was on campus at MIT. There was a report of an officer shot. He has since died. From there, there was a carjacking and activity moved one town over to Watertown, Massachusetts. And there was a violent mad shootout between two police officers there, a Watertown local police officer and a transit police officer, and two suspects in this car. And they were not only shooting but throwing explosives. The one suspect was hit and later died. And the other one continues to be on the loose. And since then, there have been scares. You know, there are announcements coming out there is a controlled explosion happening in Back Bay, actually a lot closer to the finish line than to this Watertown area. That's happening right now, we just found out, or about to happen. There have been reports where Memorial Drive there was a suspicious package an hour or so ago. So, people are on edge. Obviously, very frightening.

INSKEEP: There was another event that's part of this sequence of events, and that was a robbery of a 7-11. And, Dina Temple-Raston, was that key in getting this chase started?

TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, from what we understand, we don't know if there were other tips that came in. But there certainly was surveillance video of the suspect at-large now, this man from Chechnya named Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. And he showed up on the video because he tried to hold up a 7-11. They alerted police to this and this is what sort of seemed to at least ignited - they may have known who he was before that - but that at least ignited this entire episode.

INSKEEP: And that's one of the unanswered questions - we can speculate - but one of the unanswered questions is why would a Boston Marathon bomber be taking time to rob a 7-11? You just have to ask that question at this point.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, what they're going to be doing now, investigators are going to put together a timeline to try and figure out what exactly the bombers had been doing in the run-up from after the bomb to now. I mean, you've got to wonder why they didn't have a better escape plan. Because everything else about this seemed to be so meticulously planned. They probably didn't know there would be this much surveillance. But certainly, you know, there were no clues. It took them this long to find out who these men were. But certainly they didn't have a great escape plan to leave Boston.

INSKEEP: And Dina has mentioned they are from Chechnya. I want to bring back Roger Cressey very briefly, former National Security Council official. And, Mr. Cressey, will you help us underline what is not known? We've said they're brothers from Chechnya. We've noted that there is this past of war in Chechnya, that al-Qaida extremists, there's other kinds of people have been linked to Chechnya, but maybe this is a good moment to emphasize we don't have any information that actually connects those two things. Is that correct?

CRESSEY: Right. That's exactly right. We know nothing. And I think we need to emphasize that over and over again until we get the official report. So, having said that, let's operate under the following assumption: that what we've heard so far is accurate and correct. If they're legal residents, if they've been here for some time, if their families have been here for some time, then the why question becomes even more interesting. The motivation to do this type of attack in a community where they have lived for some time raises a whole host of questions. And if in fact their families have been in the United States, have been in the greater Boston area for a number of years, and they have lived in Boston for a number of years, then in fact this was a (unintelligible) coincidence.

INSKEEP: Dina Temple-Raston, let's clarify that if we can. It's believed these two guys were in the United States about a year. Is that correct?

TEMPLE-RASTON: About a year is what we think. And, I guess, Roger, I wanted to ask you another question, and this might be a little bit in the weeds. But apparently, I think I recall, two different arrests of Chechnyan on terrorism charges in Europe. I think there was one in March. There were terrorism charges against Chechnyans in France and then there was one in August. There were some arrests in Spain in which they thought these Chechnyans were actually linked to al-Qaida. Do you remember either one of those two episodes?

CRESSEY: Well, I'm definitely familiar with the first one. But, you know, it...anytime...

TEMPLE-RASTON: Meaning March in France.

CRESSEY: Yeah, France. Definitely doesn't have any relevance here. Certainly, we don't know. There's been an international attention by counterterrorism and law enforcement on anybody providing material support to terrorism in places such as Chechnya or elsewhere. But, you know, what motivated these two individuals is going to be the number one question on everyone's mind and it's going to be the toughest question to answer in a short time.

GREENE: And, again, those are so many questions. Just one part of the story as this investigation, as it goes forward. We also have an unbelievably terrifying scene in the city of Boston right now. Our colleague, Tovia Smith, tells us the entire metropolitan area is pretty much on lockdown. People are not going to work. And we do have one resident on the line from Watertown, Massachusetts, Jonathan Peck. Mr. Peck, tell me where you are and what's happening, sir.

JONATHAN PECK: I am sitting here in my living room in Watertown, Massachusetts kind of reflecting on what's been a pretty crazy night. My wife and I were awoken by gunfire and explosions at 12:45. We actually thought it was fireworks because the kids down the street sometimes sneak across the street and let of firecrackers. It's certainly happened a number of times, and it was followed by a big explosion, which I assumed was the grand finale. But just more and more started to sound like gunshots and there were more explosions and we retreated to our basement. And there was a prolonged gun battle outside of our house.

GREENE: A prolonged gun battle. Tell me, were you looking out the window? Were you able to see anything? I mean, what's happening out there?

PECK: We were in our basement. And we could see flashing lights and hear shouting and just a strong succession of pops, popping gunshot noises. It was clearly some sort of automatic weapons were exchanging fire. It was very dramatic. And the explosion sounds were very, very loud. It sounded extraordinarily loud. There were three separate explosions that I recall.

INSKEEP: Jonathan Peck, we should mention that you're a manager at WBUR, our member station in Boston, which has gone all out to cover this story. I'm thinking about the fact that you live in an urban area, I live in an urban area, we hear gunshots from time to time. You don't react that much. If you actually retreated to the basement, this must have been quite close to you.

PECK: You know, I have to say, Steve, I feel like I really am in the suburbs here. I have a backyard, you know, kids play in the street all the time. This is very suburban neighborhood that I'm in right now. I never would expect to ever hear a gunshot over here. You know, as far as I know, I can't even recall when there was a crime around this particular part of Watertown recently. So, this is very shocking. Very shocking.

GREENE: Mr. Peck, stay on the line with us if you can. Thank you for talking to us, and stay safe.

PECK: Absolutely. Thank you guys for your coverage.

GREENE: We still have our counterterrorism correspondent, Dina Temple-Raston, here in the studio with us. And Dina is doing like five different jobs at once, talking to us and working her iPhone and working her sources. And, Dina, you're learning some more about the suspects in this case.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Yes. It appears that the National Security Council has confirmed the names of the suspects. We had one. The suspect who's still at large, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. But it appears they've also given us now the name of his brother, which is Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

GREENE: Same last name.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Same last name. That's correct.

GREENE: And, again, these two, we have confirmed, are from the Russian republic of Chechnya. Do we know anything more about how they got to the United States? Anything at all?

TEMPLE-RASTON: We don't know anything except they were here legally. We know they were here legally and we know the younger brother, who's still at large, has a Massachusetts driver's license. That's how they identified them.

INSKEEP: And when you say younger brother, these guys are young - 19 and 20.

TEMPLE-RASTON: That's right.

INSKEEP: And have seized the attention of the world, at least according to police, who say they were the, they believe they were the suspects seen in these videos after the Boston Marathon bombing. Let's remember also, because people have been following massive coverage of this overnight, Dina Temple-Raston, there was a third person who's been involved. Who is that person? How does this person fit in, if at all?

TEMPLE-RASTON: It's very unclear. When I spoke to law enforcement officials about it, all they told me is they thought he might be an accomplice. They have not called him a suspect. They haven't arrested him, as far as I know. But he was someone who was in the area when they were trying to surround these men. And they were actually worried enough about this young man that he came out absolutely stark naked. They had stripped his clothes. They were worried that he would be wearing some sort of explosive. But they have not called him a suspect yet. They said he's a possible accomplice.

INSKEEP: And let's bring one more voice into this conversation as we switch back and forth between the investigation, which now reaches to Chechnya, and the unfolding events in and around Watertown, Massachusetts. NPR's Jeff Brady, I believe, is with us. And, Jeff, we began this hour hearing descriptions - actually just an hour ago - of police going into a building with shotguns drawn after having set up a perimeter. Afterward, police walked out, it seemed, rather quietly but that seems like it's going to be the order of the day in Massachusetts as people going door-to-door, going in and out of buildings trying to find this suspect who is still alive and still at-large.

JEFF BRADY, BYLINE: Yeah. This is a huge manhunt. And I'm seeing it from sort of the supply side of the manhunt. I'm just across the street from the police staging area that's taken up an entire shopping mall parking lot. And we're seeing literally busloads of police officers brought in. Those public transit buses that are not taking commuters today are bringing police officers into Watertown and then those police officers are being sent out. They're scouring neighborhoods. They're looking for this suspect right now.

INSKEEP: OK. And we are just seconds away, we're told, from a news conference by Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. We last heard from Deval Patrick yesterday at a memorial service for the Boston Marathon victims. Quite an eloquent speech that he gave in a cathedral in Boston to a crowd that included the president of the United States. And now so much has happened, so much has developed, so much has changed, and we're waiting on Deval Patrick to come shortly and speak to the public at this moment after a night of shooting, of explosions in and around Boston.

GREENE: Yeah. He seems to have several different jobs, doesn't he, Steve? I mean, to talk about the investigation but also to calm this city, I mean, a major American city that, from what our colleagues are telling us, is totally on lockdown right now.

INSKEEP: Yeah. When we hear that all transit has been suspended in the Boston metropolitan area, you get a sense of how serious police are in making sure that people stay at home. This one suspect, the man in the white hat, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, if I'm pronouncing remotely correctly.

GREENE: Yeah, that's good.

INSKEEP: OK. He is still at large, according to police. They don't know where he is. They know where he last was, last seen in this shootout scene in Watertown, Massachusetts. But the transit system is closed down in Boston and people are being urged to stay at home, Jeff Brady.

GREENE: And I actually think, Tovia Smith, you're still on the line with us, right? As we look for the governor to be coming out to the microphones in just a few minutes, what are you expecting to hear?

SMITH: Well, we just got a quick written statement from him just saying that he's been briefed on the status of the investigation and appreciates the progress. And we expect to hear from him shortly. You were talking about how he did speak eloquently yesterday, talking about how we are going to hope for accountability without vengeance, he said. So, we expect maybe he'll talk about some satisfaction that at least one of those believed to be responsible for the attack is no longer on the loose. But also a lot of apprehension, I'm sure, about the very dangerous man who is still out there and about the risk that police and law enforcement officials are all at right now. And we see that he is approaching, officials are all approaching.

GREENE: In a procession. I mean, it looks like they're coming up very somberly. There were police officers standing what almost looked at attention as the governor's walking down a street coming up to the microphones here.

INSKEEP: And with the vast number of the police on the streets, we're reminded of just what a clerical, an immense clerical this is to keep this investigation straight, to work the streets of Watertown to try to find this suspect, to work international sources, to try to find more about the motive of these two young men who have now been identified as brothers from Chechnya, age 19 and 20. One of them has been killed. The other believed still at-large. And as we wait for Deval Patrick to speak, Dina Temple-Raston, let me just ask you, what a multilayered challenge this is to be chasing a suspect even as you try to chase the leads overseas.

TEMPLE-RASTON: Well, you chase the leads overseas and you're chasing a suspect in actual urban or in a city. There's nothing harder. This is the sort of thing that the military wishes it didn't have to do. You have to go door-to-door and it's going to be very difficult for them to find them.

INSKEEP: You said this is something the military wishes it didn't have to do, and now it's up to the police who are trained to do that sort of thing. But nevertheless, every one of those door knockings is going to be a tense encounter.

TEMPLE-RASTON: And we know that this morning, when this just started breaking at about 3:30 this morning, they were calling the FBI headquarters saying send more guys to us. We need you in Boston.

INSKEEP: And apparently more guys are coming, as we heard from NPR's Jeff Brady, describing buses that have been diverted from the normal transit service to bring more police officers to Watertown.

GREENE: And, Dina, when this investigation was just getting started and we spoke to you earlier in the week, we were thinking that perhaps this investigation could go on for months and months. I guess I'm wondering how key was it that there were so many people who were at that marathon taking footage on their iPhone, taking pictures. I mean, was that really key to finding out who these guys were fairly quickly?

TEMPLE-RASTON: Interestingly, what officials were telling me earlier in the week is they thought the way they were going to break this case is with a picture that no one knew was important. That's what they said. And what's even more interesting about it is they made the comparison of the Eric Rudolph case, which went on for months before - this is the 1996 Olympic Games bombing in that park - that it went on for months and months. And one official told me, you know, if we had had the same sort of surveillance cameras and people with their iPhones and people, you know, taking video, then I'm sure we would have solved it much more quickly just because of that amount of information they had going through.

GREENE: It's incredible. An investigation in this modern day of iPhones. It appears that Governor Deval Patrick is approaching the microphones as we speak. Let's listen in. This is the governor of Massachusetts.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

GOVERNOR DEVAL PATRICK: * * * NEED TO INSERT TEXT HERE * * *

INSKEEP: So, the governor of Massachusetts and two top police officials, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis and Colonel Timothy Alben of the Massachusetts State Police. Not taking questions there but giving a statement. And one of the more astonishing things that was said, particularly if you're just waking up to this story, is that they are urging, really it seems, a good part of one of the largest metropolitan areas in the United States to shelter in place. Governor Deval Patrick telling people in Watertown, Massachusetts, where the suspect was last seen, to shelter in place, not to open the door unless someone who's properly identified as a police officer comes to the door. We knew that about Watertown. Then we knew it about a number of suburbs, other suburbs, around Watertown. Governor Deval Patrick is saying the same thing is true for all of Boston, I believe is what he said. We're going to continue to bring you more coverage throughout the morning right here on MORNING EDITION from NPR News, where we've learned that two suspects have been tracked down - one killed, one still at-large. This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Stand up for civility

This news story is funded in large part by Connecticut Public’s Members — listeners, viewers, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. As a community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years.

Your donation today will allow us to continue this work on your behalf. Give today at any amount and join the 50,000 members who are building a better—and more civil—Connecticut to live, work, and play.